Between Pearls & Righteousness: A Mother’s Day I’ll Never Forget

I do not blog often because I hate the way I sound in written form. But this weekend I have experienced something that is bigger than myself and therefore worth sharing, even if it requires a little humility. This weekend I experienced the gospel. We talk about sharing the gospel, living out the gospel, and preaching the gospel to ourselves daily, but so often it is hard to see the gospel in the everyday busyness of life. Well, I not only saw it this weekend, but it pierced me, cleansed me, and renewed my joy in Christ.

Here’s how it happened. I am a stay at home mom and I love it! I love being with my little boy every day and getting to see him grow and change and learn new things. I know that before long he will grow up and I will be standing there wondering where the time went. Thus, I am all about taking in every minute of every day of my son’s smiles and cuddles. The other part of my job as a stay at home mom is to take care of the house. This part I dread everyday. I don’t like doing dishes; I don’t like doing laundry; I don’t like sweeping. The only thing I don’t mind doing is straightening up in order to make everything appear clean.

This becomes an issue when my husband, whom I love dearly, greatly appreciates coming home to a clean house. Recently, this problem just keeps coming up. Now that John Elliot is sleeping through the night (and thankfully, so am I) and taking two 2-hour naps during the day, I have yet to take advantage of all the extra time in a way that is productive and pleasing to my husband and my Lord. As Tyler and I have discussed this issue over and over again, I always know he is right. I needed to submit to his leadership and make better use of my time. He doesn’t have these expectations in an overbearing way, but in a logical “we both need to make good use of our time” kind of way.

So I would try anything and everything to motivate myself. I seriously listened to Sara Grove’s song, “Setting Up the Pins” on repeat while doing my chores.  I listened to podcasts, read the “Girl Talk” blog, and even made a chore checklist that I put on a cute bulletin board. None of these things, however, seemed to make a difference. Well, yesterday we had one more conversation about it. It was calm and not heated one bit. Tyler gently shared where I had gone wrong, and I knew he was right. Being a woman though, I got emotional and saw myself as this big failure. I even told him I didn’t want to celebrate Mother’s Day because I didn’t feel worthy. I didn’t want to go to church where everyone was going to read about the “Proverbs 31 woman” because I knew that I had definitely been slacking in so many of those areas recently. And being the godly husband that he is, Tyler did not kiss me and tell me everything was going to be fine right away; instead, he agreed with me. He told me, and I am paraphrasing, “You do mess up. You’re not worthy to be honored as you are. But Christ is the perfect housewife on your behalf.  He has covered your imperfections. We ARE going to celebrate you as a mother and wife tomorrow because of God’s grace in our lives.”

So today I woke up and Tyler fixed me breakfast and gave me pearl earrings with a card. We went to church where I stood with the other women as Proverbs 31 was being read aloud, and I received a red rose from the children in the church. When we sang “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name,” I felt God’s grace pouring over me in a way I have never experienced before. I didn’t feel worthy of anything. I felt what I believe the younger brother must have felt when he returned home and received such a warm and loving welcome from his father. I had felt so undeserving of being honored as a mother, yet just as the younger brother was dressed in the father’s robe and rings, I have been clothed in beautiful pearls, and more importantly, the grace and forgiveness of Christ’s cleansing love. The following verse sums it up perfectly:

“When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.”

~ d